Chieftains, Bulldogs run at Pleasant Ridge

As regionals continue to draw closer, times continue to drop for the Tonganoxie High cross country team.

The Chieftain boys and girls both turned in solid performances on Thursday at the Pleasant Ridge Invitational near Easton, as the Chieftains combined for five top-10 individual finishes.

Sophomore Emily Williams led the THS girls with a fifth-place time of 16 minutes, 18 seconds. She was joined in the top-10 by freshman Sophia Wetta (sixth, 16:23) and sophomore Tressa Walker (10th, 16:40). Freshman Nicole Zerrer just missed the top-10, coming in 11th with a time of 16:43.

Senior Amanda Shepley (17:45), junior Alissa Donnelly (18:04) and junior Shelby Fatherley (18:09) rounded out the girls individual times. THS took second in the team standings with a score of 38, just four points behind host school Pleasant Ridge.

"I was very pleased with the girls," coach Phil Williams said. "We beat Basehor-Linwood's girls, which had beaten us the last two or three years. We were just within four points of Pleasant Ridge, who had beaten us by quite a bit more earlier in the year. Our top four runners are really tough."

The Chieftain boys had all seven runners finish with times under 20 minutes for the first time this season. Sophomore Garrett French came in fourth with a time of 17:52 and freshman Ethan Phillips took 10th at 18:40.

Junior Andrew Behm (18:50), sophomore Brad Andrews (19:07), senior Jeff Neal (19:17), freshman Dylan Staatz (19:25) and senior Brett Morey (19:32) also had strong showings as the entire team crossed the finish line within a span of just 1:40.

"That's the key to any team success in cross country," Williams said. "You've got to get your runners together toward the front of the pack. We look at the distance from our first runner to our fifth runner. It's by just a little bit over a minute, which is very good."

As a team, the boys took second with a score of 51. Basehor-Linwood won the meet with a score of 29.

McLouth High was also in action at the meet. Savannah Noble led the Bulldog girls with a time of 18:49, while Logan Hoobler paced the boys with a time of 19:44. The girls didn't qualify for a team score, but the boys took sixth with a 145.

The Chieftains and Bulldogs will both return to the course on Thursday for their respective league meets. Tonganoxie will run in the Kaw Valley League meet at Wyandotte County Park in Bonner Springs, while McLouth will compete in the Delaware Valley League meet at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence.